1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device for charging a filling material with respect to every central portion of pieces of dough transferred on a transfer conveyor so that the filling in each piece of dough is deposited at the right place and does not become exposed from matching surfaces when it is rolled up downstream of the device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the conventional techniques no automated means are available for charging a filling material onto pieces of dough such as croissant dough and rolling up the pieces of dough. In the prior art, generally a continuous sheet of dough is cut into substantially triangular pieces of a certain size. After receiving a filling, these pieces are required to be transferred to a rolling-up device with the bottom edges of the triangles facing the rolling-up device. That is, the bottom edges extend transversely of a transfer conveyor. To do so, the triangular pieces of dough must be rotated through 90.degree.. To rotate the pieces, an orientation-changing device provided with nails or suction cups is generally used. Such a device is disclosed in Japanese Patent (B) 61-10088 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,348.
In the devices of the above-mentioned patents the orientation of the pieces of dough can be successfully changed. However, the pieces of dough tend to shift transversely because the timing of catching and releasing them from the nails or suction cups by which they are engaged is not uniform, because of the thicknesses of the pieces of dough and/or other conditions. Thus, the pieces of dough shift in the direction of their widths. That is, they are not regularly placed transversely. Therefore, a downstream filling-charging device will fail to put the filling material on the central portions of the pieces of dough.
If the filling is not placed on the central portion of the piece of the dough the filling extrudes from matching surfaces of the piece of the dough when it is rolled up. The extruded filling adheres to the belt of the rolling-up device and may cause the device to fail to operate. Owing to such a drawback, at present these procedures are carried out manually.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a device for charging the filling material with respect to the pieces of dough which have not been regularly arranged in the width direction.